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Études mongoles et sibériennes,centrasiatiques et tibétaines 43-44 | 2013Le pastoralisme en Haute-Asie : la raison nomadedans l'étau des modernisations
An ethnography of life and changes amongTibetan nomads of Minyag Dora Karmo, GanziTibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan ProvinceUne ethnographie de la vie et des changements chez les nomades tibétains deMinyag Dora Karmo, Ganzi Préfecture, Sichuan Province
ÉditeurCentre d'Etudes Mongoles & Sibériennes /École Pratique des Hautes Études
Référence électroniqueGillian Tan, « An ethnography of life and changes among Tibetan nomads of Minyag Dora Karmo,Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province », Études mongoles et sibériennes,centrasiatiques et tibétaines [En ligne], 43-44 | 2013, mis en ligne le 20 septembre 2013, consulté le 30septembre 2016. URL : http://emscat.revues.org/2111 ; DOI : 10.4000/emscat.2111
Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 30 septembre 2016.
An ethnography of life and changesamong Tibetan nomads of Minyag DoraKarmo, Ganzi Tibetan AutonomousPrefecture, Sichuan ProvinceUne ethnographie de la vie et des changements chez les nomades tibétains de
Minyag Dora Karmo, Ganzi Préfecture, Sichuan Province
Gillian Tan
NOTE DE L'AUTEUR
This article is a condensed version of research from my doctoral dissertation. As always, I
am indebted to nomads of Dora Karmo, Khenpo Dorje Tashi, and an anonymous
international development organization for allowing me into their lives and work. I
would also like to thank my friends at the Sichuan Province Tibetan School, Corneille Jest,
Joseph Bonnemaire, Katia Buffetrille and Charles Ramble. Any errors or
misunderstandings are my own.
1 The wide expanse of land that comprises the Tibetan Plateau is made up of mountains,
valleys and highland pastures that are home to both agricultural and nomadic Tibetan
communities. This article draws from a one-year period of ethnographic fieldwork
conducted in 2006 to detail the pastoral movements and material culture of one nomadic
community in the Eastern Tibetan region of Kham (Tib. Khams)1, and to describe how
these nomads presently live in the light of rapid and modernizing change. Changes to the
grasslands have been directed mainly by the Chinese government through its various
policies, such as collectivisation, privatisation of pastures for individual households,
settlement into winter houses, and most recently, ‘retiring pastures, returning
grasslands’ (Ch. tuimu huancao) in the past five decades. A description of how the nomads
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of Minyag Dora Karmo (Tib. Mi nyag Rdo ra dkar mo), located in the grasslands of Lhagang
(Ch. Tagong) township in Kanze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, have negotiated, and
continue to accommodate, these on-going changes will be presented. Furthermore,
international development plans and the efforts of a local incarnate lama have influenced
and affected the lives of these nomads, and a brief sketch of these efforts will be provided.
Nomads of Minyag Dora Karmo
2 Minyag Dora Karmo is a nomadic community located at the base of the second highest
peak, Zhamo (Tib. Bzhag mo) mountain, which may be seen from the grasslands of
Lhagang. It is located on a high plateau at an elevation of 3,970 metres, 30˚17’29” N,
101˚38’20” E, in Lhagang township, Dartsemdo (Ch. Kangding) county, Kanze Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China.
3 Apart from its official delegation as a village (Ch. cun) in the Chinese administrative
system, Dora Karmo is part of a larger community of nomads known as Nalungma (Tib.
Nangs langs ma), made up of four ‘villages’2. Until 1950, Dora Karmo was a relatively
autonomous nomadic enclave under the rule of various local kings, the most powerful
being Chagwa Gyalbo (Tib. Lcags la rgyal po)3. This line of local Minyag kings reputedly
claimed the entire area of Dartsedo (Tib. Dar rtse mdo), Rangaka (Tib. Ra rnga kha),
Lhagang (Tib. Lha sgang, Lha dga’), and parts of Dawu (Tib. Rta ’u) under the state of
Chagwa (Tib. Lcags la). While older nomads of Dora Karmo recalled a tax obligation to this
local king prior to 1950, they often did not pay the required taxes and were not subject to
enforcement or retribution.
4 Simultaneously, the nomads of Dora Karmo were, and still are, part of the religious
administration of Samgye (Tib. Seng ge) monastery, the local monastery that belongs to
the Nyingma sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Nomads sent their male children to study as
monks in the monastery, paid tributes and alms in the form of butter, yoghurt, and
cheese, and attended monastery festivals and teachings at the monastery. As Richardson
(1984, pp. 1-2) has pointed out, “ethnographic Tibet” operated on a far more diverse
political basis than simple allegiance to the rule of Lhasa. Nevertheless, even as the area
of Dora Karmo and other parts of Eastern Tibet functioned independently of Lhasa in
their political functions, they were pulled back into the orbit of Lhasa through the gravity
of Buddhism4.
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Map of Sichuan Province, with detail of Kanze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
Chandra Jayasuriya, Cartographer, The University of Melbourne
Photo 1. Yaks in spring
Gillian G. Tan (March 2006, Minyag Dora Karmo)
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5 In Tibetan, Dora Karmo means ‘the circle of white rocks’. The entire area of Dora Karmo is
regarded as sacred among local Tibetans of Lhagang, a fact underscored by the symbolism
of the name in Tibetan. ‘Do ra’ (Tib. rdo ra), the circle of rocks, is pure and nurturing,
characteristics indicated by ‘kar’ (Tib. dkar), which means white, and ‘mo’ (Tib. mo), which
could signify that the rocks are regarded as feminine. Furthermore, nomads of Dora
Karmo regard themselves as keepers of a divine site who carry out activities of forest and
wildlife protection. For the past hundred years, it has been the place where revered local
Buddhist lamas and practitioners have come for meditational retreat and, to this day, it is
the refuge of a number of meditating lamas.
6 The following ethnographic account is based on my fieldwork in Dora Karmo conducted
during 2006. In an article that deals with changes in Dora Karmo, it would be
disingenuous to not acknowledge that changes have continued to unfold since my
fieldwork in 2006, nor admit that my relationship to the field has also altered. To some
extent, the diachronic concern is addressed in the fourth section, where I write about
observable changes in 2010. But in another way, ethnographic accounts are located
outside conventionally historical categories, or what Hastrup has called “the
ethnographic present”, reinvented through a critical postmodern gaze (1990). This
ethnographic present, Hastrup writes, ‘is a narrative construct that clearly does not
represent a truth about the timelessness of the others. We know they are as historical as
anybody in all possible ways. But the betweenness implied in fieldwork, and the fact of
the ethnographer’s sharing the time not of others but with others, makes ethnography
escape our ordinary historical categories’ (1990, p. 57). Explicit to this ethnographic
present is the lived intersubjective space, which Hastrup calls a ‘world’. These worlds are
self-defining social spaces that generate their own realities (Ardener 1989). I bring this to
attention in order to highlight how the ethnographic present refers not only to time but
also to place. In a large area such as the Tibetan plateau, communities of nomadic
pastoralists differ in as many ways as they share similarities, with respect to local
histories and politics, daily herding practices, dietary habits and present engagements
with change. This account describes my experience with one community and does not
intend to capture or represent essential truths about Tibetan nomads everywhere.
7 During my fieldwork in Dora Karmo, I lived with a household, first in their winter house,
a single-storey mud-and-stone structure with one room for baby animals and one room
for people, and then, as they moved to progressively higher elevations and back down
again with their animals, in the black tent. This black tent is called ra (Tib. sbra) and
differs from the physically modified black tents, or na tsang (Tib. nag tshang), of nomads
further north and west in the regions of Zachukha (Tib. Dza chu kha) and Derge (Tib. Sde
dge). These modifications pertain to the number of external and internal poles, the na
tsang has a greater number of internal poles and few external poles than the ra, as well as
the general size and comfort : the na tsang is larger than the ra and will often have a built
stove of crushed rocks and water with a metal chimney that allows smoke to be funneled
out more efficiently than in the ra.
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Photo 2. In a black tent
Gillian G. Tan (May 2006, Minyag Dora Karmo)
Photo 3. Preparing the black tent
Gillian G. Tan (May 2006, Minyag Dora Karmo)
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8 The family with whom I lived comprised the head, an elderly man of around 60 years, his
two adult daughters and the younger daughter’s husband, magpa (Tib. mag pa).
Households of related kin will generally have winter houses, or will camp, within close
proximity to one another. The nomads of Dora Karmo are dispersed across a large area of
grasslands and interact most frequently with those other households of related kin5. The
family with which I lived owned slightly over a hundred head of yaks (Tib. g.yag, Bos
grunniens) as well as ten horses, males and mares, and two large Tibetan mastiffs. Tibetan
mastiffs are not usually used for herding6 and are kept primarily as guard-dogs that
protect the herds from thieves and wolves. This composition of animals is typical of
almost all households in Dora Karmo. Unlike most other nomads on the Tibetan plateau,
nomads in Dora Karmo do not herd sheep, due to an outbreak of rinderpest that
decimated the entire sheep population fifteen years ago. The size of yak herds varies
significantly between households. The limit for the size of herds is influenced by the
ability of households to purchase or acquire more yaks and their skill in managing the
existing herd. Among the features of skilful management are the abilities to breed
resilient animals, to stave off illness and disease, to access fertile pastures, and so on.
However, there is also a correlation between the size of the herd and the number of able-
bodied nomads, particularly females, in the household. The presence of infirm or weak
nomads in the household will have a negative impact on it by increasing the number of
mouths to feed7. Wealthy households8 will almost always have several good workers and
few dependents.
9 The yak is an animal that is adapted for life in the extreme high-altitude conditions of the
Tibetan plateau. Wild yaks are mainly found in the northern part of the plateau, in the
Changtang area of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Domesticated yaks are found all over
the Tibetan plateau and comprise the major, sometimes sole, portion of a Tibetan nomad
family’s herd of animals. Yak refers to the male of the species, the female being called a
dri (Tib. ’bri). The gestation period for a yak is around thirty-six weeks, or nine months
(Wiener 2003). The domesticated animal lives to an age of around twenty years. Females
of the species may start breeding at three years of age. In Dora Karmo, names for yak
calves of different ages are as follows. In the first year, they are called we’u (Tib. be’u). By
the age of fifteen days, these young yak calves are able to eat grass, although they
continue to suckle until over three years old. Suckling is encouraged because it prolongs
the milk production of the dri. In the second year, they are called yaruh in the Dora Karmo
vernacular, in the third year, yasum, and in the fourth year, sozhe. The young are not
given names ; the process of naming begins only after they have had their first young or
when they have passed four years of age.
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Photo 4. Loading the first move
Gillian G. Tan (May 2006, Minyag Dora Karmo)
10 In addition, nomads of Dora Karmo will herd dzo (Tib. mdzo). The dzo is a hybrid between
either a male yak and female cow9 or a male bull and female dri. Female hybrids, or dzomo
(Tib. mdzo mo), are more desired than males because of their ability to produce milk.
Thus, they are highly prized, sometimes even more than dri. As a breeding animal,
however, the dzo is less valuable because the offspring of a dzo and a yak, called aku in the
Dora Karmo vernacular, is a stubborn animal. I was told that an aku is the most difficult of
the herd. If the herd goes up the mountain, the aku will always head down. If the herd
comes down, the aku will go up. They are difficult, temperamental and unpredictable.
Males akus are killed at birth to avoid potential disturbance to the herd and also because
they are not used for breeding.
11 Nomads of Dora Karmo trade the dairy products of butter and yoghurt for other dietary
items, most importantly for their staple grain, nei (Tib. nas), a kind of highland barley. Nei
is first roasted, then stone-ground into a flour called tsampa (Tib. rtsam pa). From the
flour, a variety of food is made, the most common being a paste of tsampa, tea, butter and
hard cheese that is prepared in the individual bowl that each Tibetan nomad carries. Nei
is acquired from farmers in the neighboring agricultural valleys, including Rangaka.
Trade takes place either in nearby Lhagang town, about a two-hour horse ride from Dora
Karmo, or Rangaka, about a four-hour horse ride away. The summer months see the most
plentiful milk supply, with the household where I lived producing approximately two
large metal pots10 of fresh milk each day. By contrast, female yaks are able to produce just
enough milk for their calves in the winter and there is excess milk only for a ladleful of
fresh milk for the morning and evening tea.
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12 A variety of dairy products are made from milk, primarily with the purpose of storing the
excess for winter. The predominant form is butter, although yoghurt, chura (Tib. phyur ra)
a hard desiccated cheese, and api, a soft curd cheese, are produced in Dora Karmo as in
many other nomadic areas on the plateau. Yoghurt is made only in the summer months
when there is plentiful supply of milk. Butter and chura are mainly made in the summer
and stored for consumption in the cold winter.
13 In addition, a particular type of cheese called zhorshi is made in Dora Karmo. This cheese
is unique to the Lhagang area and I have not come across it in any other nomadic region,
in Kham at least. Making zhorshi is extremely labour-intensive work : the household I
lived in, with around 40 lactating dri in the summer, only produced approximately half a
litre of summer zhorshi throughout the summer, and a small round of approximately 250
grams of winter zhorshi at the end of the year. To make zhorshi, branches of a shrub called
langma11 (Tib. glang ma) are cut and stripped of the bark. These pliable branches, which
are white underneath the bark, must be cut during the fourth month of the Tibetan
calendar12 otherwise the milk will not ‘stick’ to the branches. These branches are then
placed in wooden buckets that are used for milking. After each morning’s milking, the
milk is poured out as usual into large pots. The branches in the wooden buckets remain
untouched. Eventually, after each milking in and pouring out in the daily production of
milk products, residual milk clings to the branches, building up to form a spongy coating
on the branches. This is the initial stage of the zhorshi.
Photo 5. Making zhorshi
Gillian G. Tan (September 2006, Minyag Dora Karmo)
14 When enough residual milk has stuck to the branches, the soft and spongy coating is
collected from the branches and placed in a pot. This coating is then boiled for one to two
hours before it is taken off the heat and placed in a bottle or jar to cool. The product is
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summer zhorshi and it remains fairly runny through the heating and storing process. As
the summer progresses and the langma branches have been through several processes of
making zhorshi, another type of zhorshi is produced, which is made by placing summer
zhorshi into the stomach of a yak calf, where the natural rennet helps produce a winter
zhorshi. It is a brown-grey, firm cheese with a distinct aroma and texture. Because of its
small quantities from labour-intensive work, the cheese is eaten only occasionally at
home and served only to respected guests.
Pastoral movements
15 Because yaks constantly graze, the search for fresh pastures dictates the movements of
Dora Karmo nomads. In this article, I use ‘nomad’ to refer to nomadic pastoralists, the
group of people who rely solely on their animals for subsistence and who necessarily
move to graze the animals.13 In Tibetan, the equivalent word carries a similar association ;
the drogpa14 (Tib. ’brog pa) are a group of people who move between regular places in the
Tibetan grasslands with their yaks and other animals. These places constitute not only
the grazing sites for certain seasons, but also carry specific meanings and histories.
16 At the end of the winter season, allowing for a period of time in the spring for animals to
regain some strength and for the new-born calves to become stronger, the nomads of
Dora Karmo begin to move with their herds, from lower to higher elevation and then back
again15. The timing of these moves is calculated by the local Nyingma monastery —
Samgye Monastery — in consultation with community elders.
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Diagram of nomadic movements of Dora Karmo
Figure not to scale (please see precise details in the article)(1 cm : 250 m)
Gillian G. Tan
17 In 2006, the first move out of the winter dwelling occurred on the 29th of May in the
Western calendar, or the third day of the fourth month in the fire-dog year. The timing of
this move not only varied from year to year but also varied among households, with some
choosing to move on the specified day and others waiting for better weather. In this first
move, the nomads do not venture far, mainly because the animals have been weakened
from a harsh winter and cannot move far. Some households move no more than fifty
metres from their winter dwellings ; others move slightly further but no more than two
hundred metres from their winter dwellings.
18 The second move occurred on the 12th of June, or the sixteenth day of the fourth month.
The nomads moved from fenced winter pastures to spring pastures, less than a kilometre
away.
19 The third move, which is also the big move from spring to summer pastures, occurred on
the 9th of July, or the thirteenth day of the fifth month. The summer pastures of
Nalungma16 are called Ngula Thang (Tib. Ngu la thang), which is locally understood to
mean ‘the crying grasslands’. These summer pastures are located at an elevation of
around 4 300 metres and are the highest point that nomads of Dora Karmo move to and
remain at before proceeding down to the autumn pastures and finally returning to their
winter pastures.
20 The fourth move occurred on the 9th of August, or the fifteenth day of the sixth month.
Nomads moved from Ngula Thang to pastures called Dragara (Tib. Sgra mgar ba, or Brag
mgar ba), about five kilometres from Ngula Thang and at around the same altitude. Here
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they usually stay approximately fifteen days. The pastures are named after a strange
formation of rocks on a small hill that creates the sound of an ironsmith’s hammer when
the strong winds blow past and through it.
21 The fifth move occurred on the 24th of August, or the first day of the seventh month. The
nomads moved to their autumn pastures, at the foot of Zhamo mountain. This place was
the site of their caterpillar fungus17 gathering activities in the spring. The autumn
pastures are located at an elevation of around 4 100 metres, and are approximately ten
kilometres from Dragara.
22 The sixth move occurred on the 17th of September. The tent moved back to one of the
grazing areas of their winter pastures.
23 The seventh and final move occurred on the 9th of October, or the seventeenth day of the
eighth month. The nomads moved to pastures near their fenced individual pastures, and
returned to their winter houses in early November.
A brief history of changes, and its effects, in DoraKarmo
24 Starting from the 1950s and ending in the early 1980s, the Chinese Communist party
reorganized nomadic communities in Eastern Tibet first into cooperatives and then into
collectives that aimed to banish individual ownership. Prior to this reorganisation,
Tibetan nomads lived in black tents with one family household occupying each tent.
Several families usually moved and camped together, mainly for security reasons (Ekvall
1968, p. 28). In Dora Karmo, this household structure has not changed, though houses
have now replaced tents through winter. The most significant change resulting from this
reorganisation was the reassignment of herds from individual (family) ownership to
collective ownership. In Dora Karmo, every two nomads were assigned one animal18 to
tend and look after. Milk products, such as butter, yoghurt and cheese, were placed into
the collective and nomads were graded according to how much individual labour they
provided. Numbers would be given to them by the head of the collective and, based on
these numbers, nomads would be given more or less food and other necessities. The
collective building in Dora Karmo was constructed over thirty years ago to store the
butter, yoghurt and cheese that the nomads produced. During this time, nomads also
lived in the building.
25 In Dora Karmo, this way of living and working lasted until the early 1980s, or ‘about
twenty years ago’ as many people told me. The general consensus among older nomads
and Tibetans was that life during that time was ‘very difficult’. One older woman said,
‘then, we didn’t have enough to eat most times and we would go out to look for
mushrooms [to supplement the diet]’. This period corresponded with the famine that
came on the heels of the Great Leap Forward and with the bitter times of the Cultural
Revolution.
26 Following the disbandment of the collective system in the early 1980s, herds were
reallocated to individual households according to the numbers of people per household. A
certain allotment of mu19 of grasslands was also distributed to households on the same
basis. This land was divided into fenced pastures for the animals and an allotment for the
construction of winter houses. Fenced pastures modified the way Dora Karmo nomads
had grazed in the past because, to some extent at least, it placed a ‘stop’ on the
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movements of animals, and in consequence, to the movements of nomads. This ‘stop’ is
one of a series of measures proposed by the Chinese government under the si peitao policy
(Ch. si pei tao, or ‘four that form a complete set’), which as Yeh has summarized (2005,
p. 15), includes ‘fencing of twenty of thirty hectares of the most productive rangeland for
grazing during late winter and spring ; construction of barns for livestock ; construction
of homes for nomads at the winter pasturage site ; and planting and fencing of small plots
of annual forage for hay around the winter settlements’. Whereas in the past, the entire
area of relevant pastures was open to common grazing, subject to certain customs of
coordination and alternation, the fences marked out areas of the grasslands as belonging
to individual households, areas where other households could not graze their animals.
27 In Dora Karmo, these fenced areas were located in the winter pastures but a significant
portion of these pastures was still open to common grazing. In turn, fenced pastures were
incorporated into the households’ customary rotations of the winter pastures. Thus,
nomads of Dora Karmo continued to graze the pastures of their past in much the same
way as before, reinforcing Yeh’s comment that under si peitao policy, there were not
many dramatic changes in nomadic lifestyles as a result of the program20.
28 The winter houses of Dora Karmo were introduced at the same time as the fences, and
built on land allotted to individual households. Households in Dora Karmo have two
domains of dwelling : the winter house and the black tent. Household structures have
altered as a result, with older nomads staying in the house all year round and younger
nomads taking the animals out during the spring, summer and autumn months. In terms
of interactions with the winter house, younger people tend to use it as they do the black
tent in summer months, coming in when they need to cook, eat, tie up the young calves
or retire for the night. The exception to this is when the weather is extremely cold ;
otherwise, most of their time is spent outside. Older nomads, on the other hand, spend
most of their time either in the home or the surrounding area within the low stone and
dung walls. Many pass their time spinning large or small prayer wheels and chanting
under their breath.
29 Houses have not only become part of the way of life for the nomads of Dora Karmo, but
some nomads have used the settled dwelling pattern of winter houses as a way to gain
some degree of manoeuver within decrees, altering the exact dates of pastoral moves in
this way : when a decree is made about the approximate date of a pastoral move,
particularly from the spring to summer pastures, some households will send the younger
members of their family to take the stronger animals to the summer pastures first. By
going one or two days before the rest of the herd, the stronger animals are able to graze
the freshest summer grass. The younger nomads, usually men, are able to take the black
tent and set it up while other members of the family, mainly the elderly and the majority
of the herd, remain behind in the winter house, according to the decree. In this way,
Tibetan nomads of Dora Karmo have appropriated this ‘stop’ to their movements by using
it as an alternative domain of dwelling so that they can maximize the pastures for their
animals while remaining within the acceptable bounds of the decrees dictated by
convention.
30 Through the winter, yaks in Dora Karmo graze primarily on the winter-spring pastures.
Over twenty years ago, each household was provided an allotment of pastures
corresponding to the number of people in the household. These individual pastures are
fenced. The rest of the winter pastures are not fenced and are open to collective use. In
the winter pastures, there are approximately five separate grazing areas for the
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household I lived with, including the fenced individual pastures. There is no fixed system
of rotation within the winter pastures, although households will never allow their herds
to graze in the same area on consecutive days. There is a structure of regularity to
grazing patterns that is tacitly understood among households in close proximity. The
practice depends on where the animals grazed the previous day as well as which
household is already at the pastures in the morning. As Dako told me, ‘we just go out in
the morning and if Jhon-la or some other family is already in the area, then we just go
another way. But we never graze on the same pastures as yesterday’.
31 This account of Dora Karmo nomads thus far has described my experience with this
community at an everyday level. At the time of fieldwork, more recent government
policies, such as tuimu huancao (Ch. tui mu huan cao, ‘retiring pastures, returning
grasslands’), had not been implemented. Furthermore, this account has not brought in
larger contextual issues, such as loss of income as a result of the loss of a way of life,
supplement to income through caterpillar fungus, encroaching migration of Han Chinese
into towns located in the grasslands, such as Lhagang, and enforcement of nine-year
compulsory education on nomad children. While these issues are undoubtedly important,
and I will speak directly to those that relate to Dora Karmo, I also found that other issues
did not figure in the rhythms and conversations of everyday life in Dora Karmo. This is
not, however, to assert that they are not important elsewhere. Indeed, as others such as
Ekvall (1968), Miller (1998), Yeh (2003) and Pirie (2005) have observed, conflicts have
occurred due to the Chinese state’s severe spatial and social reorganisation of
communities on the Tibetan plateau.
32 An increasing number of works describing conflicts among nomads as a result of disputes